Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Project 2003

Pasting a Resource List from Another Application

How do I copy and paste a list of resources into Project from an Excel file or a Word file?

You can easily copy and paste a list of resources into Project from another application, but you might have to prepare the list correctly and prepare Project to receive the data or you will not get the results you intended.

For a more comprehensive discussion of importing data into Project, see Chapter 17, "Exporting and Importing Project Data with Other File Formats," p. 631 .

If you have a list of resource names in another application that you would like to copy into Project and the list contains nothing but a column of resource names , then the process is very simple. You just follow these steps:

1. Select the list in the other application and use the Edit, Copy command (or press Ctrl+C) to copy the list to the Clipboard. It's important to note that the source list must be in separate rows in the other applicationit must be in separate cells in the same column of a spreadsheet or on separate lines in a text document.

2. Select a cell in the Resource Name column of the Resource Sheet view in Project 2003. The pasted list begins in this cell .

3. Choose Edit, Paste, and Project copies the list into the Project document. All the new resources are given default values for the other resource fields.

If your list contains more columns than just the names, copying the list into Project is a little more complicated. For example, if the source list also contains a column with a money amount that you want to use as the standard rate for the resources, you must prepare the source list and also prepare the Resource Sheet view to accept the list when it is copied .

To prepare the source list, you must do these things:

• In a spreadsheet, you must arrange the data so that each resource is in a separate row and the data you want to copy is in adjacent columns. For example, the money amount column should be just to the right of the resource names column.

• In a text document, the resource name and the money amount must be on the same line, separated by a tab character or in adjacent cells of a table.

• If the money amounts are all hourly rates, they do not have to have a time period appended to them. But if they are rates for any other time period, you must append a slash and the word or abbreviation for the time period. For instance, if they are annual salaries, you must append y or /year to each of them. Without the appended time period, Project treats them as hourly rates.

To prepare the Project file to receive the resources, you must set up a table that has columns that are in the same order as the data you are pasting. To prepare the resource table, follow these steps:

1. Display the Resource Sheet view. Add temporary columns to receive the pasted data.

2. Click the column title for the column immediately to the right of the Resource Name column (by default, it is the Type column).

3. Select Insert, Column to display the Column Definition dialog box.

4. Select the Standard Rate field in the Field Name box.

5. Click OK to insert the column.

6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 for each column of data you are pasting in, being careful that the order of the columns matches the order of the data you are pasting.

After the source and the target location are prepared, select the source data and copy it to the Clipboard. Then select the blank Resource Name cell below any existing resource names and choose Edit, Paste.

After you have copied the data in, you should remove the columns you added to the display by selecting the column titles and choosing Edit, Hide Column.

Filtering for Labels Contained in the Group Field

How do I filter the Group field when individual cells contain multiple keywords?

If you put multiple group labels in the Group field and want to filter the resource pool for one of those labels, you need to modify the standard Group filter to use the contains test. The same type of filter would also be used in a custom text field that lists multiple skills for some resources.

The standard Group filter uses the equals test when it searches for the label you ask it to filter for. The equals test requires that the entire entry in the Group field contains exactly the label you tell it to search forno more and no less. If you create a copy of the Group filter that uses the contains test, it selects all resources whose Group fields contain the label you are searching for.

If you choose Project, Filter For, the Filters menu displays. Notice that the Group filter is on the menu and that its first letter is underlined. The underlining signals that the user can simply type the underlined letter (that is, the hotkey) to select the item. The three periods at the end of the filter name are a convention that signals the user that the filter asks for input before executing; in this case, the filter asks the user to type in the group label that the user wants the filter to find.

The steps that follow add the Group Co n tains filter to this menu and underline the first n as the hotkey. They start with a copy of the Group filter and merely change the name and the logical test from equals to contains .

To create a copy of the Group filter named the Group Contains filter, follow these steps:

1. Choose Project, Filter For, More Filters to display the More Filters dialog box.

2. Click the Resource button to display the list of defined resource filters.

3. Select the Group filter in the Filters list.

4. Click the Copy button to display the Filter Definition dialog box for a new filter. The default name for the new filter is Copy of &Group, and you need to change that.

5. Change the entry in the Name field to Group Co&ntains... , with the ampersand before the first n and three periods at the end. The ampersand causes the following character to be the hotkey.

6. Leave the Show in Menu check box selected so that this filter appears on the Filter menu.

7. Click the equals entry in the Test column, and either type in contains or use the drop-down list to select it.